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Gradient Laser Tape Manicure

9:00:00 AM

Okay, I love this manicure. Words cannot describe how happy this manicure made me, especially since it began after a tragedy. Yes, tragedy. Right before I sat down to do this manicure, my nails were the perfect shape and length. I was so happy since they had taken me awhile to grow. I had trimmed them, filed them down a little, and was ready to go. Well, I decided before painting my nails to clean up a tad, and of course, I broke my ring finger right down. It was awful.

I trimmed again, chopped my nails down, and with a sigh sat down and painted on a base coat. I was too bummed about the broken nail that I didn't want to attempt some hard core nail art because I figured I was going to hate it since I hated the length of my nails. The one thing I have learned you can never go wrong with when you are unhappy with your nails is a gradient. They're fun, different, eye catching, and look amazing.

Of course, I can't leave a simple gradient alone. I had to make it pop more. So I grabbed my nail art tape and started creating. Let's take a look at the final, amazing product.

Colors Used:

OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls

China Glaze - Hang Ten Toes

Funky Fingers - Riot!

China Glaze - Splish, Splash

Oh how I love, love, love, love this look and how the pictures turned out. I started off with two coats of OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls. Gosh, I love this polish. I held off on buying it for the longest time because from looking at the bottle, all I saw was an off white polish. I thought to myself "I have no use for this, it's ugly, I'll hate it, and for the money it is not worth it." After much peer pressure on Twitter, I caved and purchased a bottle, and am so mad at myself that I never did prior. When on the nail, it is a perfect white polish that isn't as "in your face" as a pure white polish. As a nail artist, sometimes having stark white polishes can really ruin a design, and sometimes you need something more muted. This, is that polish. Since purchasing it, I have used half the bottle, and am going to head to the beauty supply store in a few days and grab a back up bottle. OPI needs to make this part of their permanent collection.

When the base was dry, I added on my nail art tape in random burst patterns on the nail. After the tape was on, it was time for the gradient.

For the gradient, I picked one of my favorite color schemes which is blues and purples. The China Glaze polishes were both from last years Summer Neon collection, and Riot! by Funky Fingers was just a random bottle I purchased awhile ago. The purple isn't a true "neon" but it serves the purpose when I use it among gradients with other neons. Pink to purple to blue, how can anyone go wrong. I painted the colors on a make up sponge, and dabbed over the nails. After getting the gradient as dark as I wanted, I removed the nail art tape, revealing the white below. I added a top coat to blend the gradient and called it a night.

Looking back now, adding some Northern Lights over the gradient before removing the tape may have looked amazing. I may have to try that in the future.

What do you think? Love it, hate it? How can you hate it??

Well darlings, until next post, have a great one! <3

**I purchased all polishes mentioned in this post. Please see my disclosure policy**